Alan Woods: Successful Blackjack Player and Racehorse Gambler

Alan Woods is what one would call a well-rounded gambler, as
not only has he won millions of dollars from betting on horse
racing, but he has also accumulated millions through playing
blackjack, poker, and other various casino games.

At the time of his death and still to this day, Woods is
regarded as one of the best gamblers in the world thanks to his
phenomenal mathematic abilities and for becoming a billionaire
thanks to his wide variety of gambling endeavors.

Early Years

Alan Woods was born in Murwillumbah, Australia, in 1945. His
parents ran a news agency when he was first born, purchasing a
hotel later on in their life. Even as a small child, Woods was
naturally good with numbers, being able to count to one-hundred
before he started kindergarten.

He excelled in school, receiving a scholarship to attend the
University of New England in Armidale to pursue a degree in
mathematics. However, Woods struggled to attend his classes
regularly and was ultimately kicked out of school only a
semester away from graduating.

Introduction to the World of Gambling

It was during his time at the University that Woods really
started developing an interest in gambling. He started out like
most people do, playing cash games at a local casino,
particularly taking an interest in poker and solo: a card game
that he used to play with his parents.

Towards the end of his last semester at the University, Woods
started betting on horses. His first bet was on the third
favorite for the race, who was up against the two best horses in
Australia at the time, a nearly impossible feat. Despite the
odds, this mysterious horse surprised the crowds that day,
taking home first place and landing Woods his very first win.

After that initial win, Woods started attending horse races
more often, always making sure to record how much he bet and on
what horse. After about three years, he realized he was losing a
lot more money than he was winning, so he decided it would be in
his best interest to quit before he was too far behind.

An Addiction to Card Counting and Blackjack

In 1972, Wood's old friend from college called him up and
told him of a job opportunity at a new casino in Hobart that was
going to be opening soon called, Wrest Point Casino. They needed
help calculating the house edge and after many months of
punching numbers into a calculator, Woods and his friend worked
out that the house edge on blackjack, when playing with four
decks, was 0.7%.

Something just didn't add up in Wood's head though and after
doing a more thorough investigation and intensive research, he
realized that he could use the process of card-counting to gain
an edge over the house and become practically unstoppable.

Woods gathered a bunch of his friends and travelled to a
nearby casino to play blackjack and test out his theories. The
players who weren't card-counting lost their $500 initial stake,
but the ones that were card-counting won over $1,000. Woods
continued to play at casinos across Australia, finding success
in most every venue he encountered.

This was around the time that he married his longtime
girlfriend, Meredith and had two beautiful children. Wood's
addiction to gambling greatly jeopardized his home life though,
as he even missed the birth of his second child because he
wouldn't leave his game at the Wrest Point Casino.

Needless to say the marriage didn't last and after the
divorce Woods addiction to blackjack spiraled out of control. He
played often, but he also won often and within six months, he
was up $100,000. Woods decided to become a professional
blackjack player, taking a three year long journey to play
blackjack at hundreds of casinos across Europe and the United
States, bringing home millions of dollars along the way.

Giving Horserace Betting a Second Chance

After the trip, Woods was still interested in gambling but
was ready for a change, so he headed to Hong Kong to join Bill
Benter's team of gambling professionals that were looking for
ways to enhance their chance of accurately predicting horse
racing bets which was an increasingly popular market in Hong
Kong at that time.

Woods was able to assist Benter in developing a computer
program, based on mathematical equations that gauged which
horses were going to win based on the track, form, weather, and
a plethora of other factors that could possibly affect the
outcome of the race.

To be more specific, in an interview with Sydney's, Monthly
Magazine, Woods named a few more factors, "We had a factor
called bad rides. We had a factor called not trying. If a couple
of horses disputed the lead together, the guys would give it
numbers for that too." It seemed like their team took into
account almost everything.

Unfortunately, their team was highly unproductive the first
two years while they were in the process of perfecting their
methods, losing a total of $150,000 over that time span. Finally
from 1986 to 1987, they were able to turn a profit, winning over
$100,000 and they certainly hadn't peaked yet. Before the turn
of the century, all members of the team were multimillionaires,
but they decided to part ways due to disagreements in how funds
should be dispersed among team members.

Reaching the End of His Life

Upon retirement, Woods wanted to spread his wealth to those
less fortunate than him, so he donated a substantial amount of
money to the Filipino community. He also financially supported
several mental health research facilities and a foundation that
seeks to preserve the art of Australian bridge.

In his later years, Woods became a recluse, never leaving his
sweet abode unless he wanted to sunbathe or swim in his private
pool. Alan Woods passed away on January 26th, 2008 at age 62 in
Hong Kong, China from cancer of the appendix. At the time of his
death, Woods was worth over $500 million dollars and could
easily be considered one of the most successful gamblers in the
world.